Like a pop-cultural walk through time, All-American Ads of the 40s covers the breadth of print ads from the World War II era. As one might expect, the ads look very different from ads today. Most are illustrated, and even the selling of innocuous products like candy bars taps into public interest number one, the war. The book is divided into chapters by product including alcohol, fashion, entertainment, travel, and automobiles. Saving the best for last, the conclusion of each chapter reveals the editor’s pick for most peculiar ad. Most enticing are the movie posters. Classic pictures like Citizen Kane and It’s a Wonderful Life appear in their original print incarnations as fantastic visions of old Hollywood. Hawking beauty products are famous stars such as Lucille Ball, Lana Turner, Marlene Dietrich, and Veronica Lake. Not surprisingly, gender roles are sharply divided, and race issues stick out sorely. Included is an essay by Willy R. Wilkerson III, “From Rationing to Prosperity, American Life in the 1940s,” tracing the history of wartime consumerism. –J.P. Cohen
Customer Reviews
Coffee table books worth collecting:
This is one of a series of amazing books published by Taschen.
I have been purchasing them through Amazon (as some are difficult to locate through stores). The series so far covers the 1910s through to the 1980s, a volume per decade. Over 500 pages of quality reproductions of ads from consumer goods to movies of those decades. You could spend hours looking through these books - and still find something you missed last time around. Congratulations to the editor/s.
All this and World War 2!:
Baby boomers take note of this wonderful book! As one born in the late 1940’s I can’t recommend this book highly enough. Here are ads from the magazines when we were born. The ads are printed somewhat smaller for the full page ads and a lot smaller for quarter page ones. However the printing quality is good enough that you can read ads in their entirety even if you occasionally have to use a magnifying glass to read the smaller ones. (Yes, our eyes are beginning to show our age!)You people with good eyes won’t have that problem. The ads will awaken a nostalgia for things you don’t remember. The Zenith TV with the Giant CIRCLE screen! (It’s probably 10 inches!) How about an ad for Rice Krispies with Snap, Crackle and Pop riding American fighter planes! The Greyhound Bus ad asking people to “Help a fighting man enjoy his precious leave or furlough” by giving up travel. It all ‘ads’ up to a wonderful trip back in time!
The book I was Waiting for in it class:
Off course I was born in the 40’s so this adds is part of the world I lived, so I enjoyed it very very much. I used to collect old Reader’s Digests specialy for the adds, it reflect the world of those days and most of it are true art works.
The selection is very wise and complete, the section I liked the most is the car section and the pictures quality is terrific I d’ont undestand how they got so good picture quality if it suppossed they take it material from old magazines.
I’m sure any body will enjoy it a lot.
I’d rate it 6 stars or more if posible.
Capitalism at work…forties style.:
Another massive collection of colorful magazine advertisements from Taschen. This is the same format as the first book in this series,’All-American Ads 50s’, hundresd and hundreds of whole page consumer magazine ads (there are a few pages with two or four) beautifull printed.
As this edition covers the war years, 111 pages carry ads by American companies explaining how they are doing their bit for victory. On page 618 there is a 1941 Greyhound bus ad that features a map of the US showing all the main military camps and the copy tells how Greyhound runs a bus past most of them. In the chapter on ‘Industry’ I found sixteen 1945 ads from a metal producing company called Bohn, they show futuristic designs for various forms of transport and a wonderful streamline combine harvester.
Most of the ads in the book use illustration rather than photography, so much easier to stretch reality.
This is an ideal gift book for anyone who lived through the forties and if you are just curious about middle-class life back then these thousand ads will give you plenty to think about. A book bargain at the price.
